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AnnGora
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
252 Posts |
 Posted - 04/27/2007 : 3:02:25 PM
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I was going to add another candidate to the Greatest Movie Villains thread, but I find that this "villain" actually provokes sympathy from me instead of loathing. Mixed with the evil, there is pathos.
James Cagney as Cody Jarrett in White Heat
Are there any other sympathetic villains out there that you find yourself rooting for?
She was bred in old Kentucky, but she's just a crumb up here. |
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The Rev. D.D.
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
203 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2007 : 3:25:52 PM
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Hmmm....toughie.
I tend to root for the killers in slasher movies, but that's mostly a "Darwinize those stupid motherf***ers before they breed!!!" sort of thing, not because I'm sympathetic to them.
I usually feel sympathetic for monsters...it's not usually their fault they're the way they are.
Take Godzilla, from the original movie. Not his fault an A-Bomb mutated and scarred him, poor old dinosaur.
I always feel a twinge for ol' Vader at the end of ROTJ. I know his last actions don't necessarily make up for all the evil he's done, but still...
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This one'll need some thought. |
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AnnGora
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
252 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2007 : 4:42:27 PM
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Rev-
You reminded of the most sympathetic movie monster of all: King Kong. I remember when the old 1933 version would come on TV Saturday afternoons when I was a kid and my mother would just shake her head and mumble softly, "Poor ol' Kong...he's pitiful. Bless his heart."
She was bred in old Kentucky, but she's just a crumb up here. |
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Citizen Carrier
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
322 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2007 : 7:11:26 PM
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Usually, when I root for a villian it is because the movie or hero is so insufferably irritating I start daydreaming how wonderful it would be if the villain won and erased any possibility of a sequel.
The best example I can think of would be Christopher Walken in Batman Returns. He was the corrupt electrical company president who was "stealing" electricity. I really wanted him to win at the end. Why?
Because he was an actual bad guy motivated mainly by greed. All of Batman's other villains are the result of psychosis. Not a sane one in the bunch and they are all so awfully gimmicky. Batman Returns was the worst of the lot. Remember The Penguin chugging around in the sewer in that giant rubber ducky thing? His army of penguins equipped with guided missiles? Ugh.
And Catwoman? Hey, fall out of a tall building and you too can become a world class hand to hand combatant, forever leaving behind your dull existence as a personal secretary!
When Walken was blasting her with that .357 Magnum, it was like he was doing it for us.
Reload, you fool! Hold them off while I run to Walmart and get you some more cartridges!
Way back in the day when my friend and I watched the first Batman, we both admitted that we wanted The Joker's henchman to beat the living daylights out of Batman in the church tower. I mean kill him permanently. He was just a man trying to do his best. No neat little wrist gadgets with cables or anything.
Another one? Ernest Borgnine in Convoy. Haven't seen that one in probably 15 years. Heck, I was pretty conservative even then. When Ernest got on that twin 40mm anti-aircraft vehicle and manned the M-60 machinegun...he became my hero. Pour the lead into that hippie truck!
Okay one more thing, slightly off topic. Does anybody out there besides me think that Judge Dredd would've been absolutely badass if it didn't have Stallone in it at all and pretty much just starred Max Von Sydow's supporting character? I don't know why, but I remember thinking that when I saw it. What a great cult classic it would've been with old man Sydow out in the wastelands getting by with that pump-action rifle thingy and the wisdom of his age? |
Edited by - Citizen Carrier on 04/27/2007 7:16:22 PM |
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2007 : 7:21:42 PM
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| Although it's a rather obvious choice, Riddick (Vin Diesel) in Pitch Black comes to mind. |
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Citizen Carrier
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
322 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2007 : 7:25:32 PM
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| Montgomery Burns. Easily my favorite Simpsons character. |
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Sardu
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1126 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2007 : 7:52:14 PM
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Not a movie villain (yet) but-
Gargamel. I know he'll get those damn Smurfs someday and feast on their tasty blue flesh.
Also, Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor in the first movie.
"Meeting you makes me want to be a real noodle cook"
--Tampopo |
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BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2007 : 11:43:43 PM
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Any "villain" in a hardcore Designated Hero™ movie would fit this bill nicely.
Back on more traditional grounds, Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver is a good choice. You're cheering for him when he blows the pimp and his cronies away, but you'd still never want this maniac within five miles of you. |
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Cannon Fodder
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
Australia
176 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2007 : 02:43:47 AM
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| Seeing as people keep mentioning cartoon villains I'll have to bring up Wile E. Coyote. He worked so hard to catch the Roadrunner and even in situations where he really should have won the laws of physics would reverse themselves and the plan backfire on him. Even by the standards of Warner Bros. cartoons the level of frustrating unreality that stack up against Wile was just unfair. The poor guy deserved a break. |
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BradH812
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1294 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2007 : 1:09:48 PM
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While we're talking cartoon "villains...."
I found the so-called villain in Curious George to be more sympathetic than its "heroes." Here was a guy who was a jerk, but an understandable one. It was clear his father had neglected him, and that his father (one of the "good guys") has no regrets about it. He was more sad than mean, and unlike Our Heroes, he didn't try to commit fraud in the course of the movie.
Actually, in my opinion Curious George could be deserving of a review around here. It was directed at small children, but its idea of morality, and its treatment of this guy, were pretty ugly when you think about it. |
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Capt. Nemo
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
630 Posts |
Posted - 04/28/2007 : 7:46:23 PM
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Having just seen Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor.
I rooted for the Japanese.
Yuck.
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"Ward, the Beaver blew up the 7-11 again."
"I'll have a talk with him Dear" |
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New Hinda
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Israel
469 Posts |
Posted - 04/29/2007 : 05:10:52 AM
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| All those horrible, evil, bloodthirtsy, pro-death penalty, redneck Texans in THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE (or BILLY JACK.) The supposed good guys are so self-righteous, the Texans come across as more normal, more level headed, more courteous, more decent. |
Edited by - New Hinda on 04/29/2007 05:13:20 AM |
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New Hinda
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Israel
469 Posts |
Posted - 04/29/2007 : 07:56:34 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by The Rev. D.D.
Hmmm....toughie.
I usually feel sympathetic for monsters...it's not usually their fault they're the way they are.
Take Godzilla, from the original movie. Not his fault an A-Bomb mutated and scarred him, poor old dinosaur.
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The original FRANKENSTEIN was another great example. |
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RossM
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
427 Posts |
Posted - 04/29/2007 : 11:19:52 AM
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I always enjoyed the original Master in the Dr. Who series. He was played by Roger Delgado and was a real charmer, but still perfectly oily. An absolutely great job by Delgado. As Alfred Hitchcock used to say, the bad guy has to be charming or else he could not get close to his victims.
rossM |
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Mark Hawley
Minister of the Sacraments of Jabootu
Canada
48 Posts |
Posted - 04/29/2007 : 9:24:10 PM
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Speaking of Hitchcock, I'm surprised no one's mentioned Norman Bates. The scene where's he's trying to sink the car in the swamp and it suddenly stops sinking is an amazing example of making the audience sympathize with the villian.
There's also a similar scene in Strangers on a Train where Robert Walker's character is trying to frame the hero and he drops the vital piece of evidence in a storm drain. Even though if he retrieves it, it means he'll successfully frame the hero, I doubt there's not one audience member who's not rooting for him. |
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John Nowak
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1017 Posts |
Posted - 04/29/2007 : 9:59:29 PM
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Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Mummy, and especially Island of the Dead. In Bedlam he took the odd route of playing an absolute rotter.
Really, Karloff is an army of sympathetic villains all alone.
And if we're thinking not of "sympathetic" villains but villains you actually root for, then Michael Clarke Duncan in Daredevil, for punching Ben Affleck over and over and over again.
Really, I just can't get enough of that.
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We've always been united in stupidity. That's why there is no hope. But, then again, when has that ever stopped us?
-- hbrennan |
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